Woman-led Energy Community
Online Sharing Workshop
9 March, 2021
This workshop aims to discuss the low carbon energy experiences of the local residents in Seoul, Foshan, and Wong Tai Sin.
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Hong Kong
The promotion of energy sustainability in Hong Kong is limited. Thus, citizens have a lack knowledge on energy saving. More events should be carried out regularly to raise their awareness and to promote the concept of sustainability and energy saving.
Secondly, for the institutional barrier, most of the solar panel project is found in village houses only. In estates, people may confront the ownership issue. It involves many stakeholders of the apartment, including the owner, property management committee and contractor, etc. Technical barrier is regarded as well. People need to consider whether the project is illegal and safe which bother their mind. Apart from these two barriers, some citizens concerned about the cost of solar panel installation and the long pay-back period.
Foshan
In Foshan, solar power is relatively rare. Solar panels are usually only available in factories or schools. Only a small number of residents use their household appliances with solar panels. In China, solar power is still in the predevelopment and take-off stage which focuses on research and development (R&D) because of the high investment and other barriers. Most of the users prefer installing solar water heaters to solar panels currently. However, Guangdong Province has a high average rainy day. In school, students also have given the afford of using solar power. They tried to make various solar power machines, including solar-powered electric vehicles and heater…etc. For the government, it is playing an important role in promoting saving energy. The government has switched the type of lamp from a tungsten lamp to a fluorescent lamp. It has increased energy efficiency. Instead of promoting, it also provides subsidies to citizens for switching the bulb type.
Seoul
Climate change is still a hot topic that people concerning about. In this workshop, Kim So Young was invited to represent the Sungdaegol energy community in Seoul. The South Korean Government set several goals that included the energy transition from fossil fuel and nuclear to renewable energy and reduced carbon emissions in 2050. After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident happened in 2012, Park Won Soon, who was the mayor of Seoul keep promoting the “Once Less Nuclear Power Plant” while the solar power generation program is then carried out.
In fact, the Seoul Metropolitan Government did a lot of work to promote the solar power generation program. They provide a lot of subsidies which up to 90%, for the cost of solar panel installation. The economic barrier is overcome as they also offered incentives like award after the installation. It may attract more citizens to install solar panel in their house. However, some citizens concerned about the technical problem of installation and the maintenance problem of the solar panel after natural hazards happened. Therefore, the government would choose some professional companies to explain the effort of the solar panel and complete the installation rigorously to overcome the concern of the citizens. Additionally, apart from installation, many organizations would help the citizens to recycle the solar panels once they need to be discarded. Now, some people install small scale solar panel on their balconies. And they hope that about two-thirds of households in Seoul would install the solar panel soon. The South Korean government also wishes there will be 30 energy self-reliant village like Sungdaegol. Moreover, Soyoung also mentioned that they did a lot of promotion of this program on TV or some social media and hope to influence the surrounding communities.
On the other hand, a student from Korea in this workshop said an organization called Energy Guardian Angels Corps is launched in Seoul, which encourages more teenagers to join the volunteer work on energy saving. About 20-30 students per school joined the program and spread the waste reduction message.
